PISCATAWAY — At intermission, the historic College Avenue Gymnasium was as loud as it's been in years, rocking from the rafters following a string of four straight wins by Rutgers wrestlers over heavily favored Ohio State.

But the No. 4-ranked Buckeyes turned it on after the break by winning the next four bouts in dominant fashion to post a 23-17 decision and spoil the Scarlet Knights' valiant upset bid before 1,523 fans Sunday afternoon.

"It was cool, it was exciting,'' Rutgers coach Scott Goodale said after his team fell to 11-6 overall and 1-6 in Big Ten action. "We need to keep making this a home-mat advantage. When you're winning, it's exciting and the fans get behind it. They're a passionate fan base but we have to continue to score points and make it exciting. If we would've got a couple of wins late, this place would've really gone wild. But that didn't happen.''

"I'm excited for those guys,'' Goodale said. "They pulled some upsets there, beat some nationally ranked guys and that goes a long way toward the Big Ten seedings. I loved the way we came out in the beginning.''

But Ohio State (11-3, 7-1) rallied from the 14-5 deficit at intermission by scoring bonus points in four of its five winning bouts to record its seventh straight victory.

"Obviously you want to win big and lose small, that always helps in a dual-meet situation,'' Goodale said. "I've never seen a college dual where I think there's four techs. That's a lot, and that can't happen at this level. If you're going to compete, it can't happen at this level. Our mindset was to win the toss-up bouts.

"But where they had their horses, we just couldn't match their horses. They're really, really good for a reason. That's somewhere we're going to have to get better at, and get those type of caliber kids.''

The sixth loss in eight matches completed a gauntlet of nationally ranked teams that was unprecedented in Rutgers wrestling history. The Scarlet Knights compiled a 10-0 record in non-conference action, but their resume includes losses to current No. 1 Iowa, No. 2 Minnesota, No. 4 Ohio State, No. 5 Penn State, No. 10 Nebraska and No. 14 Illinois as they head into the final month of their first Big Ten campaign.

After falling to Ohio State — which rested the nation's No. 1 141-pounder, Logan Stieber, and the No. 6 149-pounder, Hunter Stieber — before a crowd that included Scarlet Knights football coach Kyle Flood and former New Jersey Devils owner Jeff Vanderbeek, Goodale said his No. 22-ranked team is still striving to build the kind of depth that the top Big Ten squads possess.

"That's something you have to recruit and you have to get kids to believe in, 'Hey, maybe you're not the starter right away but you can still come here (for depth).' That's kind of what we're fighting here right now,'' Goodale said. "Kids see our lineup and shy away from maybe being a backup for a year or two. But for us to compete ... we have to find depth where we can win. Not everybody has a lot of depth.

"But the best teams in the country do.''

Top performances:

• Scott DelVecchio began a string of four straight Rutgers wins with an upset of Johnni DiJulius, the nation's No. 7-ranked 133-pounder who entered the match with an 21-2 record. The match had its share of excitement and controversy, as officials needed to review a locked-hands call that went in Rutgers' favor with 43 seconds left in the bout. That made it 1-1, but DiJulius still had control with a riding-time point in hand.

More controversy ensued when DiJulius was charged with his second stalling call, resulting in a 2-1 lead for DelVecchio with 30 seconds left. With the capacity crowd at a fever pitch, the South Plainfield High product then went on the offensive, scoring a reversal and three back points in the final 10 seconds to post a 7-2 upset.

The win for 19th-ranked DelVecchio's record to 16-6 this season.

• Anthony Ashnault kept the momentum going for Rutgers following DelVecchio's thriller, jumping out to leads of 5-0, 10-1 and 12-2 before scoring a 20-4 tech fall at the 6:32 mark.

Ashnault, who improved to 19-4 on the season, capitalized on the absence of defending national champion and current No. 1 141-pounder Logan Stieber, who didn't travel to New Jersey for the match after previously beating Ashnault this season in Las Vegas.

• Ken Theobold continued a torrid stretch with his seventh straight win, shutting out Randall Languis in the 149-pound bout to improve to 20-4.

• Anthony Perrotti, who has struggled to regain his All-American form in an injury-plagued campaign this winter, screamed "I'm back, baby'' after upsetting No. 7 Josh Demas at 157 pounds.

Perrotti snapped a 2-2 tie by scoring five points with a reversal and near fall late in the second period, and held on to cap the string of four straight wins for the Scarlet Knights.

• Billy Smith ended the match on a high note for Rutgers, prevailing 5-2 in the heavyweight bout. The fourth-year junior raised his season record to 12-4.

Up next:

Rutgers returns to action Friday, traveling to face Wisconsin for the first of two weekend Big Ten matches on the road. The Scarlet Knights then travel to Chicago to meet Northwestern on Sunday before returning home to renew its intrastate rivalry with Princeton on Feb. 14.